What does our religion say about bad things happening to good people?

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My brother asked me the same question last night.
The best answerI could come up with was " that’s the mystery of evil".

My brother tells me he’s an atheist. I wish I had a better answer for him. I feel kind of lame.
 
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Has he read the Book of Job?

My personal opinion is that everybody has challenges in life, that life is often unfair or seems random, and that we should try to learn from each experience and to always trust in God. Perhaps when we have completed this life, what appears to be random bad things will make more sense to us as we view them in a larger context of God’s plan. In some cases we can also sometimes see good coming out of some bad thing that happened. For example, a bad thing like a death or illness might have a side effect of bringing a family closer together, or bringing one of the living people closer to God.

These are hard things to explain to an atheist because when you don’t have God at the center of your life, it just seems like a lot of random pointless horse hockey to be honest. God gives our life meaning as we are not here just to have a good time ourselves but to also do his will and persevere. Unfortunately, unbelievers often see this as us making up a God and a bunch of myths to make us feel better about life.
 
Whether we will or not, we must suffer. There are some who suffer like the good thief, and others like the bad thief. They both suffered equally. But one knew how to make his sufferings meritorious; he accepted them in the spirit of reparation, and turning towards Jesus crucified, he received from His mouth these beautiful words: “This day you shall be with Me in Paradise.” The other, on the contrary, cried out, uttered curses and blasphemies, and expired in the most frightful despair.

There are two ways of suffering - to suffer with love, and to suffer without love. The saints suffered everything with joy, patience, and perseverance, because they loved. As for us, we suffer with anger, vexation, and weariness, because we do not love. If we loved God, we would love crosses, we would wish for them, we would take pleasure in them… We would be happy to be able to suffer for the love of Him who lovingly suffered for us…

…Our greatest cross is the fear of crosses… We have not the courage to carry our cross, and we are very much mistaken; for, whatever we do, the cross holds us tight - we cannot escape from it. What, then, have we to lose? Why not love our crosses and make use of them to take us to Heaven?
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-the Cure d’Ars
 
What book is this quote taken from please?
Edited to clarify my question was/is to Midori. I’d be interested in reading this book of The Cure d’Ars from which your quote is taken.
 
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‘Lord, how is it that some die when they are young, while others drag on to extreme old age? Why are there those who are poor and those who are rich? Why do wicked men prosper and why are the just in need? He heard a voice answering him: Anthony, keep your attention on yourself; these things are according to the judgment of God, and it is not to your advantage to know anything about them.’ - The sayings of St Anthony of the Desert
 
The Catholic Church does not teach that bad things happen to you because GOD is angry with you. The Jews believed that if you were afflicted with Leprosy for example. That indicated that a grave sin had been perpetrated by that person.
However the book of Job show that Job was righteous, and yet was afflicted and tormented extensively.
And yet the Jews remained in their believes even to Jesus time. Jesus Himself is a proof that bad things can happen to innocent people. As you correctly pointed out the evil in the world killed Jesus. But fortunately HE conquered death and gained for us eternal life. Now when we are afflicted with evil we can take refuge in the suffering endured by Jesus and join our suffering to HIS for the sake of the body of the Church.
 
To everything there is a season. A time to be glad, a time to weep. A time for peace, a time for war. A time to kill, a time to heal. A time to sow, a time to reap. A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together. A time to be born, a time to die.

The book of Ecclesiastes is wonderful. I would recommend meditating upon both this book and that of Job.

As far as “seasons” go, consider this. Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring all come naturally on their own time, with benefits and drawbacks of them all. We can also simulate the seasons, either raising or lowering the temperature in our homes and cars for our benefit (or detriment). Similarly, we can respond to or create the situations we find ourselves (or others) in.
 
Matthew 5:45

"that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. " Italics are mine.
 
The Scripture says “the rain falls on the just and the unjust”.

Some good articles and reading lists here:


St Pope John Paul II amazing work on suffering is must read.

Also, Fr. Benedict Groeschel’s book “Tears of God” is a must read (it is free on Formed.org in audio book)
 
I got it from one called “Little Catechism of the Cure of Ars” (ISBN 9781496092342). It has a few dozen subjects, and each subject has two, three, four, five pages’ worth of homily from the Cure on each. It’s been edited from some other source. No editor credits, no citations, no publisher credit, etc, which is regrettable and gives it a very self-pubbed CreateSpace feel (which it is), but the content itself is good, and is bite-sized enough to encourage someone who really wanted to to hunt down another version that was less condensed.
 
Your title question immediatly brought to mind the most good Person who ever lived.
Bad things happened to Him,
but God brought unbounded good out of it,
the offer to each person of their eternal salvation.

United with Him, the sufferings of the good can be offered in prayer for others.
And with the suffering, if we accept it in Christ’s name, our souls can be made holy before God and a witness to others for Him.
 
God’s plan is to train the human will. He lets us suffer in order to show that we need Him. I think that, if we’re honest with ourselves, it’s when we feel the lowest that we’re able to realize how much we need Him. I don’t believe that He likes us to suffer, but His plan is to call us to repentance and sometimes His voice gets louder than usual. His desire is for all to come to repentance, so whether I’m having a good day or I’m feeling low, He’s speaking the same thing.

Moreover, God uses suffering in order to make His devotees more Christ-like. Christ suffered a tremendous amount. Whenever something hurtful happens to me, I thank God for making me more Christ-like and I thank Him for helping me understand what Christ went through. When I do that, the suffering typically goes away immediately. Satan knows that when we are in faith, there’s no way he can touch us. 🙂
 
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Death (evil) entered the world via the envy of the devil. Since the fall from grace, bad things happen. However, this does not mean that we have been abandoned - far from it! Just yesterday, we celebrated the greatest victory that can ever occur: life triumphs over death.

Now, the Lord permits evil so that He, and He alone, may bring good from it. We think we know what’s good, but He knows what is good for us. If you focus on the fact that we are pilgrims on this earth, and that our goal lies elsewhere, then life’s problems fade in comparison.

Job is a great book on suffering, but it takes commitment to read to the end and ponder its meaning. As an alternative, read the Book of Tobit. It is often called a “mini-Job” and is a delight to read. Rather than a discourse on good versus evil, it encapsulates virtually every human experience, thought and emotion. By far my favorite old Testament book.
 
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